The amazing cat rescue at Westfield Woden

The rescue of a poor moggie trapped in the hot engine of a car in Canberra on Thursday is absolutely mesmerising.

The video was posted on Facebook by Sarah Hart who also said she noticed the cat when walking past the vehicle at Westfield Woden on Thursday. She was returning from the ticket booth at the carpark near the centre loading dock and the car was on enough of an incline for her to see under.

"I saw a fluffy cat tail and part of a leg sticking out from the engine underneath the car. It was dead for sure - stuck hanging, near a hot engine on a hot day,'' she wrote on the Canberra Notice Board Group's Facebook page.

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The poor cat trapped under the car at Westfield Woden on Thursday. It's not sure if it was emulating the Robert De Niro character in Cape Fear and hitching a ride. Or just got stuck.Credit:Facebook

She posted on the page to alert the owner of the car and also had them paged inside the centre.

Some desperate meows from the stuck cat established it was alive. The owner of the car turned up, but did not own the cat. The owner opened the bonnet and allowed security from Westfield Woden to extricate the frightened puss, even permitting some parts of the car to be dismantled.

It took an hour but the cat - hot, thirsty, scared - was finally rescued alive.

The very lucky moggie with one of its rescuers from Westfield Woden securityCredit:Facebook

Sarah told the Canberra Notice Board Group community that a lot of "don't usuallys" happened that helped with the cat being detected and rescued.

She didn't usually shop during the week and, if she did, she usually went to Tuggeranong, not Woden. If she did shop at Woden, she parked underground, but on Thursday, there were not enough parks, so she went to the outside carpark.

"I was only there [because] I had finished work training in Stirling,'' she told the group.

"I had the afternoon off and Woden was close. I cut through the car park and lucky there was an empty space in front of the car otherwise I wouldn’t have seen it.''

Sarah, 35, of Calwell, said the cat was comfortable around people and did not appear to be feral. It was receiving veterinary care and being checked for a microchip with the hope of being reunited with its owner.

"Safe to say I came home and hugged my cat,'' she told The Canberra Times.

Two women who drove the car to Woden work in Symonston and usually go for a walk around Symonston on their lunch break but this time decided to go for a drive to Woden. Had they not, the cat quite possible could have been struck in the engine until at least 5.30pm and unlikely to have survived the heat. Neither woman owned the cat but did all they could to ensure the rescuers got access to the moggie, who now has eight lives to go with.